Kazama Ren and Ogata Yamato's Story
by mmm.kai.mmm
Summary: Ren and Yamato had always hated each other. or so they thought. they find themselves thinking about the other and when a wierd new teacher comes and forces them to end their hatred, they discover new feelings, and that they would do anything for the other
1. Chapter 1

_No one seems to have written a kazama/ogata so I thought I would because they are totally bumming each other._

_The plot line pretty much belongs to the writers or Gokusen III but I'm the one that tells you what happens in between and made Kazama and Ogata think gay thoughts about each other and start bumming each other :wink wink:_

_There is lots of change in pov and which person as in 1st person 2nd person 3rd person._

_As I was writing this, by about the 15th page I had a de ja vu. I felt like I posted this and got lots of bad comments saying that I got everything wrong and said a load of crap. Man I really hope that that doesn't happen!_

_Damn, noone is going to be bothered to read all of this!!_

_i'm not really sure how to rate this. so if anyone does get to the end of the fic, please review and tell me?_

* * *

They had started out hating each other, Ren having been bullied as a child wanted to prove that he couldn't be pushed around and that he wasn't weak, and Yamato always having to prove that he is the strongest, always having to be the one in control of the class had always started fights with anyone that would dare oppose him and stand in the way of control. Ren stood tall in front of the two other members of his group or gang – to everyone else they would be called friends. Ichimura and Kuraki had been with him for a long time now and they always joined him in the glaring contests with Ogata, Honjou and Kamiya. They had also been friends for a long time now and Honjou and Kamiya would always fight along side Ogata. The two trios would glare at each other across the room - as the rest of the class made a ruckus - and wait for the other to stand down or make the first move.

Kazama had never looked at Ogata with hate, he felt a strong feeling of dislike but he didn't hate him. But his fear of the pain he had felt when he was bullied had driven him to fighting to prove his strength and make people think twice before judging him. So he would glare at him with the anger that he felt inside as he remembered earlier days where he was hurt and decided that to prove once and for all that he was not inferior, that he would be the leader of Akadou. As far as Kazama was concerned, Ogata was just another bully trying to hurt him and he would not take it lying down.

Ogata thought that he hated him, he thought that he hated Kazama's appearance, the way his eyes would bulge as they glared at each other, the way he frowned and the way he challenged his authority. As far as Ogata was concerned, anyone who tried to threaten his power or tried to take over was an enemy to be despised. He was not going to let anyone overrule him; he was the leader of 3-D of Akadou!

But who knew that these two rivals could become close and precious friends. Who knew that their feelings could become that of something even more than friends?

It took a while for that to happen though. The countless times that they stared each other down, Kazama had felt something that wasn't anger or a need to protect himself, he didn't know what it was and locked it away where it couldn't cause confusion. Ogata hadn't realised that he felt anything other than anger and hate until after they had sorted out their power issues.

It was all thanks to Yamaguchi Kumiko really. When she had first arrived, she had effectively set off one of many arguments between Ogata and Kazama's friends. She took a pack of cards away from Kuraki and when he lost his temper kicking at a table and injuring himself, Honjou called him a loser and started a fight between the – effectively – four apprentices, while the two leaders continued their hard glares. Words were hardly spoken between them but as they all left after one more, hard glare, Kazama decided that he was going to prove himself once and for all.

Whenever Ren had entered the classroom, he had become cockier and cockier, barging in and shouting his arrival as though everyone needed to know. He ordered answers and explanations from other members of the class rather than asking them directly and he gave off the impression that he was unbeatable, against everyone, including Yamato. Ogata and his crew decided that soon they would have to put him in his place at the same time as when Kazama had decided to go head to head with Ogata and made it clear that he would not lose to him.

Ogata had seen Kazama as he walked home one night running into another pedestrian, they both saw each other and Kazama threw a more ferocious glare at him than usual before running off looking very pissed off. He had watched him with slight interest and, as he ran off, wondered what had pissed him off. He didn't think anything of it at the time but when he had heard that there had been a robbery around that time around that area, he felt a sudden need to protect Ren and tried to refrain from telling anyone that he had seen him in the area whether he was the robber or not.

He still felt the need to protect him even as the taller male with blonde highlights in his jet black hair approached him the following day demanding a fight to find out once and for all who was the leader of Akadou High. He was still of course thrilled about the final decision for a fight and laughed at how confident Kazama seemed to be. They agreed on the time and place and the two groups continued to glare at each other until Kazama was called to the head teachers' office.

This had caught Kazama off guard and when they explained that the police wanted to question him about the muggings, Ogata stared at him and bit the inside of his cheek as a feeling of unrealised worry washed over him. Ogata wasn't the only one to be staring at Kazama; the entire class watched him for his reaction and to see if they could determine if he had something to do with it or not.

Kazama could feel Ogata's intense stare boring into his back and wondered if he had said anything about seeing him that previous night to anyone. He wondered if he would and if he would use this as an opportunity to become leader without having to battle with him. He felt a slight ache of pain in his chest that he didn't let show at the thought of Ogata handing him in on a silver platter because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when he had nothing to do with it. But would anyone believe him?

He was accompanied on either side by Vice Principal Sawatari and the Deputy Vice Principal to the office as though he had already been convicted as his class mates stared after him in silence, no one knowing what to say.

He was sat at a table in front of two officers, the Board Chairman behind him, Kyoto Sawatari sitting in a seat next to him facing him, the deputy vice standing to the side and Yamaguchi-sensei standing behind him diagonally watching what happened.

"Tell the police where you were and what you were doing around 10PM last night" Kyoto Sawatari told him.

_If I tell them that I was there then they will automatically think that I was the mugger so I should just say I was at home. But if Ogata tells them that he saw me then they will know that I was lying and will definitely think that I am the mugger. Damn it. If Ogata hadn't seen me then I could easily get myself out of this, but if he turns me in…._

"I didn't do anything" it wasn't a lie. And it kept him safe, for now.

"We're asking where you were" Sawatari repeated.

_Damn it, if it was anyone else then I wouldn't need to be afraid of being turned in. _He ignored his teachers question and leaned over the table towards the two officers with an intimidating stare and wide eyes "are you suspecting me?" if he played it right then he wouldn't need to answer the question at all.

"It's not that, it's just that the victims all say that the perpetrator looked like a high schooler" the first officer stated to him not in the least bit affected by his attempt at being intimidating.

_So they automatically come to me?! There were 27 other high schoolers in that room alone!_ "You singled me out just on that?" his voice sounded sceptical and disbelieving.

"Your build and other features match up well with the description we have", the first officer informed him.

"Huh?" _what's that supposed to mean…_ he thought incredulously.

"You were arrested for assault when you were in junior high weren't you?" the second officer asked, his eyes wide and accusing.

_Damn it. They are always going to use that against me. and even then it wasn't me!_

"I'll ask again, where were you last night at around 10PM?" Kyoto asked again.

He looked off into the distance thinking through his options, he could lie and say he was home and risk having Ogata squeal on him or he could tell them that he was in the area and try to fight for his case. In his blank face you could see the worry in his eyes as he thought this through, he eventually came to a conclusion as Yamaguchi said "Kazama, answer them." Even though it was a command, Yamaguchi's calm voice made it sound less like a demand.

"…I was at home" he said blankly already kicking himself for lying.

"Do you have any proof?" _ha, of course not, but I wouldn't have any proof even if I really_ was_ at home!_

"no, I don't" he got up, angry at himself and even though he knew that he was lying, if he had been home and had been telling the truth they still would not have believed him, "now I'll ask you, do you have any proof that I'm the perpetrator?"

The two officers looked at each other and chuckled lightly, "there it is," _what's that meant to mean?_

It was as if they were waiting for him to ask this question and that would prove that he had committed the crimes. He lunged at the police officer reaching over and grabbing him by the collar and lifting him up shouting at him as Yamaguchi – sensei and the other teachers ran over to them to break it up and take Kazama away from the officer.

"Cut it out" Yamaguchi said her voice loud as she attempted to place her arms between the two bodies and separate them. Her and the deputy vice principal held onto Kazama's arms to keep him from jumping at the officer again as the officer shouted "with an attitude like that you'll only attract suspicion!"

"Teme!" Kazama screamed as he tried to break free of his teachers' hold, his hair flying in front of his eyes as he shook in fury.

"Calm down!" Yamaguchi also shouted as she looked at her precious student with worry and concern.

When he eventually stopped his fighting and calmed down the officer said, "That'll be all for today" before turning around and leaving the room.

Kazama grew agitated again as he called after them, "next time you come, make sure you bring some proof! Bastards!" but Yamaguchi still had a firm old of her student along with the deputy vice principal.

The board chairman closed the doors behind the officers before turning around and furiously watching her pupil, "having police come, that's never happened at this school!" her voice boomed throughout the room.

The two teachers released Kazama and he bowed his head down glancing slightly remorsefully at the board chairman.

_But I didn't even do anything_

As if his thoughts were read, Yamaguchi stepped forward and spoke up for him, "but, Kazama didn't do anything"

Sawatari spoke from behind Yamaguchi countering her argument, "being questioned like that means his behaviour has been problematic. That itself is a problem!"

_WHAT?_ Kazama turned his head towards Sawatari furiously and tried to cool his heated blood; he would only get into more trouble, "to top it off, getting violent with the police is out of the question!" Sawatari continued to shout at him and closed the distance between them.

Not knowing what to say he simply flashed his bright grin at Sawatari as the board chairman sentenced him for his behaviour, "Kazama-Kun, I'm suspending you for a week" his grin disappeared as he looked at the board chairman and his frustration started to grow.

"Wait a minute" it was Yamaguchi who was talking for him again. _Since when did teachers defend their students anyway? They never stood up for me before. And I don't need them to now._

"Perfect" he said, before Yamaguchi could do anything else unexpected of a teacher, "suspension or whatever, do what you like" _it's not like you haven't before._ He walked around the table brushing past a chair as he made his way to exit and as Yamaguchi and Sawatari called after him. "Kazama!" he ignored their cries and stormed out only hearing "isn't it a bit much" before the door closed completely cutting off all sound from inside the room.

He stormed through the hallways back towards his classroom to get his bag. _I've got to get out of here_ he thought to himself _before I do something stupid._ He reached the classroom and flung the sliding door open as Yamaguchi called after him saying some nonsense about calming down and not leaving. He briefly felt Ogata's gaze on his back and considered turning on him and shouting at him if he had said something to the police about seeing him the previous night but thought against it with this teacher in his face.

"I'd be fine with expulsion if they like" _if they want to punish me when I did nothing wrong then I would rather get expelled and go somewhere where they won't automatically suspect me for __everything!_ "_Don't even joke about that" she said, HA what would she know? Why would she care? She's just another lying backstabbing teacher._

"Anyway, don't leave, I'll persuade the chairman" _yea right._

"I don't believe in what a teacher says" and with that he stormed back out of the room hearing Kuraki tell her to leave him alone.

Yamaguchi looked around the classroom where no one seemed to have even noticed that Kazama was even suspended and shouted at them for their lack of caring for their comrade.

"Comrade?" Ogata said with a sly smirk, "we happen to be in the same class, that's all" Kazama Ren was definitely _not_ his 'comrade'.

"Even so, don't you feel anything? Don't you think anything of it?" _feel anything?_ Ogata supposed that he felt a slight feeling of loss as they wouldn't be having their glaring contest for a week, but other than that… although he supposed it was more than what the others felt, "nothing really"

"It happens a lot" Ogata's friends had put in their thoughts and the rest of the class lightly chuckled and shrugged their shoulders in indifference.

"That guy was falsely accused and tossed out! Don't you think it's wrong?"

_Yes… if he was falsely accused._

"wow, she's fired up!" a nameless voice called from the back of the class inviting the others to laugh as Ogata had a brief moment to crush any feelings of remorse or loss that he felt for Kazama.

"Why not rebel at a time like this?!" she continued not even slightly put out by the rest of the classes behaviour.

"Quit the sermon already!" Kuraki yelled.

"Whatever we say won't change anything" Ichimura was speaking up now, and he was right. _We're delinquents, no one listens to us, and no one believes us._

"It's not like you damn teachers ever listen to what we say anyway"

"Is that why you're telling me to drop it?" Yamaguchi countered.

_Screw it. I don't need to protect him; I don't need to cover for him _"oh, by the way," the whole class was looking at Ogata now, wondering what he would have to say on the matter, "he was near the Shirokin Tunnel at the time of the incident. I saw him with my own eyes"

"Really?"

"Yea" a feeling of guilt then consumed him but he dismissed it as agitation and picked up his bag leaving the classroom followed by the rest of the class.

As he walked away with his friends beside him he kept on thinking back to when he saw Kazama running through the underpass and the way he crashed into a passerby. He tried to think of all the reasons why he could have been running like that and why he could have been so pissed off. He was pissed off before seeing Ogata so that couldn't have been it.

--

Kazama went home after he stormed out of the classroom thinking back to that night. He hadn't done anything wrong. He may get into fights but he would never mug anyone.

The next day there was a knock on his door, he went to open it thinking that it may be Ogata trying to blackmail him; he still wanted to punch his face in, but instead it was that annoying Yamaguchi-Sensei again. He tried to close his door but she held it open saying that she needed to talk to him.

"I've got nothing to say to a freaking teacher"

"I want to know the truth"

She wasn't being pushy; she wasn't saying that he was a liar or that he was the perpetrator. She was giving him a chance to tell her what happened, his side of the story. He looked down at her bewildered and decided, _why not_.

They walked down by the river, Kazama meters ahead of Yamaguchi as she talked to him, "there's someone who saw you on the night of the incident, how about it? Were you near the scene?" _damn it, he told her, who else did he tell? _

He turned to look around at her as she asked him again for the truth, saying that she wanted to hear it from him. _What, does she expect me to make a confession saying that I mugged all those victims? Well I didn't! I knew I shouldn't trust a damn teacher!_

He stayed silent, not wanting her to think straight away that he was the mugger.

"You can't tell me?"

"Yea, I was there!" he went silent again and looked away from her.

"Then why did you lie and say that you were at home?!"

"Would anyone have believe me if I told the truth? I would have been treated like the perpetrator just for being nearby! It's always the same, whenever something happens, I've always been suspected! When some money was stolen in elementary school, when a classmate's wallet went missing in Junior High, I was the first suspect. No matter how many times I said I didn't do it, no one would believe me!"

"Kazama…"

He looked down to the ground, the feelings of anger and the frustration of not being believed refuelling and catching up with him.

"You didn't do anything, right?" Yamaguchi finally said breaking the silence and staring at him intensely.

"I didn't do anything" he looked her in the eyes as he said this and felt a sense of relief at someone believing him. A teacher no less… he felt that he could tell her the truth now, "true, I was near the scene that night, but that was it." He walked away hoping that she still believed him and at the same time not wanting to raise his hopes too much, after all, she was a teacher.

And yet again, as if she could hear his thoughts doubting her belief, she called out "I believe you!" he turned around and looked at her as she spoke.

"No matter what the other teachers or police say, I believe you"

He laughed at her as if it was some kind of joke, "Aren't you going to snitch?"

"I'm your homeroom teacher; I won't sell out my students. Thank you for telling me."

Although she seemed sincere with her words, he still couldn't help but think that it was some kind of trick. He looked down at her blankly and then looked away feeling embarrassed by the way that she seemed so trusting and having doubted her.

"Alright then, let's catch the real culprit!"

"Huh?" _is she insane?_

"Kazama, when the incident happened, you were near the scene right? Did u see anyone suspicious?"

_Okay, she's crazy_ "I didn't see anything"

"Did you hear any voices? Try to remember" _what is she thinking? I don't know!_

"Like I said, I didn't…" he paused as images flashed through his mind of that night. "Ah…"

"Is there something?" she asked patiently.

"I did run into a guy."

"Really?"

He flashed back to the event where he was walking down the tunnel and a hooded figure ran into him, _"look where you're going!" he shouted at him as he grabbed onto his shirt and punched him. He caught glimpses of a necklace and tribal tattoo on his arm. He was pushed away and ran after him_.

"I got pissed off and chased him but… I lost him half way" he remembered the look in Ogata's eyes as their gazes met. He looked as though he was looking into Ren, trying to read his mind or something like that. He wondered why he felt as though he wanted to run after Ogata rather than the thug that ran into him.

"What sort of guy was it? Height?" Yamaguchi broke him out of his thoughts and made him think hard back to the event.

"What sort…?"

"Try to remember what you can!"

He looked over the river as though that would help him jog his memory for anything that he could.

"He had… a skull necklace and a tattoo on his right arm…."

After remembering all that he could of the punk, he departed from Yamaguchi with thoughts of the fight he would have with Ogata, although, if he hadn't told Yamaguchi, then she would have never pressed him to remember anything about the perpetrator.

--

The class seemed a lot louder without Kazama there. Not because he controlled the voices of the class members, but because when they were caught in their ongoing battles, everything else seemed to zone out and it would just be the two of them. At the same time as it was aggravating, it was also relaxing when they were caught in that moment. Aggravating because he was still determined to be the only leader of Akadou and 3-D but calming because it distracted him from all other worries or the claustrophobic feel the classroom had with everyone shouting and fighting and throwing things around.

Yamaguchi entered the classroom with a stack or posters in her hand and as she told the class to line up, she handed a poster to every member of the class. As he looked down at the poster he was a drawn picture of a hooded figure, a picture of a skull necklace and a tattoo that supposedly, the real perpetrator has.

"I'd like everyone to help prove Kazama's innocence"

Kuraki and Ichimura looked at each other in surprise and then looked at Yamaguchi, was a teacher really trying to help a student? Their friend?

Honjou laughed and voiced what most of the students were probably thinking, "This, isn't he lying?"

"He's not lying" Yamaguchi informed them.

"Why do you believe that?" Kamiya called out.

"I can tell from looking at his eyes" Ogata looked up at that. Most teachers can't look them in the eye. The ones that do are the stupid ones or are trying to intimidate them. Never before has a teacher looked them in the eye while listening to what they were saying, to really hear what they were saying and read the truth in their eyes.

But this only seemed to have an effect on Ogata, Kamiya walked forward and leaned right in close to Yamaguchi before saying "I smell an idiot" the whole class laughed but this didn't put her down.

"Lend me your hand. Please!" she bowed down to her students awaiting their reaction.

Ogata already knew what was going to happen; as Honjou threw his poster into the air, so did the rest of the class, except Ogata, and they walked away from her. She still kept her bow as they walked out of the classroom and Ogata couldn't help but stare at her with wide eyes. Why was she doing this? Why was she making a fool of herself for a student? No other teacher had believed them before let alone tried to prove their innocence. He watched her as she collected the posters off the floor and collected her bags and left the classroom. He looked at the poster before also grabbing his bag, putting the poster in it and leaving.

His mind was never quite rid of the thoughts about what Yamaguchi had done in class, of what she had done and said before too. If she was right, and Kazama really was telling the truth then he was being unjustly punished. And Ogata hated injustice.

It was hours later when he was walking home with Honjou and Kamiya that they saw her running across the street with those posters in her hand asking complete strangers if they had seen the supposed perpetrator, describing him with just hand drawn images and the word of one teenage delinquent.

"No way, she's really searching for the culprit?" Honjou said as he and Kamiya laughed together at their apparently idiotic homeroom teacher. They really felt nothing about this situation. They didn't need to feel anything. They never had before. What happened to their classmates wasn't any of their business.

"Is she an idiot?" Kamiya continued.

"Totally an idiot" he laughed. It didn't bother them. So why did it bother him? Was he starting to think that Kazama really wasn't the culprit? Or was it something else?

This teacher. She didn't know Kazama at all. She didn't know any of his history or anything about him and she is out here trying to find someone that he might have made up! A teacher has never done anything for any of them before and now Kazama has the undivided attention of a strange teacher that had the idea that he was telling the truth and wanted to help him? If anyone was out here trying to find this mystery guy, shouldn't it be Kazama's friends? He didn't deserve to be worried about!

--

It had been a boring day for Kazama. After he had described the tattoo and necklace to Yamaguchi, he went back home and lay on his bed thinking about all the other times this has happened. All the other times he was accused of stealing something. It made him mad and he threw his fist into the wall making a slight dent.

His thoughts had then wondered to Ogata. He couldn't keep him off his mind. He kind of missed their glaring contests and still didn't know if he would tell anyone else about seeing him near the incident, even with Yamaguchi trying to help him, there was no way of saying that they could find this guy and no way of knowing that Ogata won't tell someone first before they can even find the guy. He thought about the fight that they were yet to have and drifted off into a light sleep where he dreamed of Ogata.

_It was the fight that they had been waiting for. They were in the destined park and were circling each other with the rest of their class egging them on to start. Ogata threw a few cheap verbal shots at him which pushed him to start the physical attack. His throw was blind and easily dodged. He threw another punch and that was again dodged._

_Ogata was jeering at him with a cocky grin plastered onto his face as he took his turn and hit him square in the jaw. Kazama fell to the floor rolling a couple times before being stopped by a kick in the gut. He was kicked again and when the foot came at him for a third time, he grabbed onto it before it __made contact and stopped it. While trapping the leg he tried to stand up only to be pushed down on his knees and kicked again in the gut._

_He was about to fall forward when Ogata grabbed a fistful of his hair and forced him to look up at him. "Pathetic. You really thought you could beat me? Don't make me laugh" he punched him repeatedly in the face before allowing him to fall backwards so he was lying on his back as Ogata straddled his waist and started to punch him again. _

_He leaned down again and placed his lips over Kazama's cheeks breathing on it lightly. "You lose. Now tell them who their leader is" they looked into each others' eyes, Kazama's being half open from swelling up and Ogata's being wide, white and… beautiful? Kazama shook the thought away from his mind but Ogata took that as a refusal to admit defeat. He punched him in the face again, blood was dribbling from the corner of his lip and his cheeks were swelling from the pounding, after he punched him he started to grind his groin into Kazama's own. Kazama's eyes visibly widened at this new course of action and he tried to lift his arms to try and push him off but his position was too strong and he wouldn't budge. Ogata then kissed his cheek roughly and then a loud pounding could be heard._

The banging became more frequent and a cry of "Ren!" was heard. His eyes sleepily opened as he looked around and realised he had fallen asleep. The dream had disturbed him but he couldn't worry about that just now. He shook his head and got out of bed going to the door where the banging was coming from. He opened the door to see Ichimura and Kuraki with a poster in their hands.

--

"we think it'd be great to prove your innocence…" Ichimura said as Kazama had a better look at the poster, being silently amazed at how accurate these drawings were of the real things "…but I don't think this method works" he continued, he knew his friend was innocent, well, more like, he thought he might be innocent. And the posters would have worked… if he was telling the truth.

"Seriously, she's such an idiot right?" Kuraki put in.

_Idiot? Probably. No one would really say if they had seen this person or not. If they had then they are probably a friend of them. But I can't believe that she made this and went to all this trouble to help me._ He didn't know what to feel. No one had tried so hard to prove his innocence before. He wished that he could do something to help her, to help himself rather than just hanging out with his friends and waiting for a miracle to happen. They said that this wasn't the way to prove his innocence but they didn't have any bright ideas of doing it.

He went on walks and sat at home and lay on his bed feeling helpless and useless. She was trying to prove his innocence and he didn't have a clue what _he_ could be doing to prove it.

A few days had gone passed and Ichimura and Kuraki came over again telling him that she had been seen every day, asking for help and handing out those posters. Was she really so committed to doing this for him? Did she really care so much about him?

--

_Every day. Every day! Day time, night time, rain or shine, there she is! Getting out of lessons even before us to find more pedestrians to bother. Handing out those stupid posters! 99 percent of the people who have gone past her didn't even take one or they threw it away straight away! Why is she __still going on? Why is she out here every day trying to find this guy that can't possibly exist? Why is she so determined to prove his innocence? She knew him for what, 1 day? And now she is out here every night for him!_

He wasn't jealous. Well he didn't think he was. He didn't realise he was. If it had been him in Kazama's situation, would she be out here for him? Depending on how much of an idiot she was he would probably guess yes. But that didn't stop the feeling of jealousy and envy towards Kazama.

It was irrational, he knew that. The chances of finding this guy were slim. He had half a mind to run over to Kazama's place and ask him if he realised what their stupid new homeroom teacher was doing for him. He wanted to see if he was doing anything himself or if he was just lying on his arse waiting for her to find him for him. He had half a mind to go over there and beat the crap out of him.

It was currently raining as he stood holding his umbrella as he watched her attempt to hand out the flyers and watch her get soaked to the skin not even bothering to have an umbrella or anything to protect her. He just couldn't understand it. She bowed and pleaded to the passersby with their umbrellas not sparing a moment to see what she wanted.

He had stood quietly watching her for days. Most people ignored her or took a flyer and then threw it away. Today someone just had to be different. Two men in suits walked up to her, "hey, who said you could do this?" the first man asked.

"I'm looking for this man" she informed them aiming to hand them a poster to look at.

"don't look down on us!" the second man shouted as he grabbed all the posters and threw them on the floor stomping on them and leaving after saying, "don't do this again".

She just bent down and picked them up again, putting them in a neat pile. That was when he approached her. He had had enough of this. She was making a mockery of herself, "Baka djainero?" he said incredulously. She never seemed to even think that he could have been lying to her the entire time.

"Ogata"

"You're just being deceived by his lies! Why don't you realise that already?!"

"I believe in Kazama. If I don't, I shouldn't call myself a teacher, you know?" that was all she said before smiling and walking away. _Baka!! _He shouted in his head as he tried to cool his blood and bit the inside of his cheek in agitation. And yet again she was asking for help. Asking if anyone had see the made up man. He had to hand it to her. She was dedicated. And he would be grateful to her if he was in this position, whether she found the culprit or not. Not many people would take so many drawbacks and carry on strong. This teacher was going to cause trouble. He could feel it. Everything was going to change.

--

They were in their regular hang out spot. A small den-like café place where they could get drink and play darts or whatever. They were sitting round a table when Honjou spoke, "is that damn teacher searching for the culprit today?

"Does she still believe Ren's lies after Yamato told her he was near the crime scene?" Kamiya asked no one in particular.

"What you just said, is it true?" the boys turned to look up at two officers flashing their badges asking for more details. _Damn it. Snitching to Yamaguchi is one thing. Now the police are going to arrest Ren and think he was involved in it._

The feeling of needing to protect Ren had come up again. He told Yamaguchi because she deserved to know the truth, and her knowing obviously wasn't going to harm Kazama's chances and suspicion. Telling the police that he was near the incident would be like saying that he was the culprit. But he couldn't lie to an officer.

Honjou and Kamiya both got out of their seats, Kamiya rubbing the back of his neck looking and feeling extremely guilty.

--

_He snitched on me! __That stupid motherfucker told them I was near the crime! Argh!_

That's what he thought when he was got into the taxi with Kyoto Sawatari who was standing at his door. But he didn't expect much less. It wasn't as though he had never been taken into custody before. He was used to it. It hurt more than he was angry. He felt as if he had been stabbed by someone he thought he could trust rather than snitched on by a foe. Why he felt this way, he didn't now.

He had just finished watching a TV show when there was a very hard knock on his door. He went to open the doors and saw the Head teacher and all he said was "we're going to the police station"

There wasn't any point struggling or shouting as he was lead to the car that would drive them to the station.

The ride was silent as he looked out with window; the sequence of scenery was familiar to him. He had had this journey before. When he got out of the car he saw Yamaguchi standing there in front of the car. Why was she there? It wasn't _her_ that had snitched was it? She said she wouldn't, but since when did he trust a teacher. No. There was no possible way that it was Yamaguchi who snitched on him. She had been handing flyers out every day trying to find the culprit, she had no reason to. It had to be Ogata.

Kazama was lead by the arm by Sawatari towards the station, "it appears I was too naïve, huh? For thinking that you'd be able to control 3-D." _no one has been able to do it so far, what made you think she would be able to?... well, she isn't an ordinary teacher I suppose. "_These guys are trash after all" _what did you say?_ He looked at the Kyoto glaring slightly at his words; "it's useless to teach things to trash" he was used to hearing this as well. He carried on keeping his cool exterior as Yamaguchi stood in front of them trying to block their path, "Kyoto!" she called out stopping them.

"Yamaguchi-sensei, you knew didn't you?" he accused. "That this guy was near the scene of the crime" he extended. "Apparently the police heard it from Yamato Ogata" _I knew it! That fucker!!_ He turned around and controlled his glare at Kyoto barely keeping himself from lashing out at him to track down Ogata and beat him to a pulp.

"but Kazama isn't the perpetrator" she was still on his side. She was still fighting for him.

"Whether he is the culprit or not, the police will investigate from here on out!" he bellowed.

She turned around to see the detectives and several other officers coming out of the building to take in Kazama. Without even hesitating she ran up the steps towards the officers and started talking, "detective. That guy only lied because if he told you the truth, you'd have thought he did it." _She's still fighting for me. Why? At this rate she'll get fired._

"It's okay already!" he called out to her.

"What's okay?"

He smiled briefly before saying, "I'm used to this sort of thing"

"Don't get used to it"

All the detectives walked around her and they approached Kazama.

"Detective. Lying was the only way for him to protect himself," _shut up. Stop it. You're not helping _he thought as the detective grabbed onto his arm and roughly pulled him towards the station "isn't it us as adults that made him that way?" she still hadn't give up fighting, "please, don't drive Kazama into a corner anymore," _how could she understand so well how I feel? How could she know if I feel trapped or alone?_ "Detective, Please!" the ignored her. They all ignored her. It was only Kyoto that spoke to her, grabbing a hold of her arm and calling her name. He only needed to call her name to make her stop going forward. The last thing that he had heard from her was that she was going to save him no matter what, but he didn't bother looking round to see if he could find truth in her eyes.

--

Shouting, that's all I could hear, I could just hear her shouting. Defending him. Sticking up for him. She so strongly believed that he was innocent that she promised she would do whatever it takes to save him. _I_ should be the one that needs to save him. I'm the one who got him into this mess in the first place. But I still don't even know if this guy even existed. I felt guilty about snitching on him, but I still am not even sure that he is innocent. She saw me looking at her and we looked at each other as though we were trying to send messages to one another – save Ren – and then I left.

I walked down by the river trying to convince myself that if he _is_ guilty then I don't need to feel bad. I would have helped arrest the guy that has been mugging people. A hero. I had nothing to worry about. But then I thought back to Yamaguchi-Sensei. _'I believe in Kazama'_ she had said. _'if I don't I shouldn't call myself a teacher, you know?'_ does that mean that if I didn't believe in him I can't call myself his class mate? Ha why would I even think that? We had never done anything for each other before, why start now? But it made me stop. It made me think a little harder. Feel a little more. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the crumpled folded poster. I looked at it and looked at the details of the mystery man and turned around running in the other direction thinking, 'I'm going to find this punk and get Ren out of jail. I'm taking responsibility for this.'

I ran towards town, looking in the streets and the clubs, looking for this guy that would get Ren out of custody. When I was passing through a club I bumped into this big guy. The punk had the nerve to grab onto my shirt and tell me to watch where I was going, "what?" I also grabbed onto his shirt raising my eyebrows showing him that I wasn't afraid of a fight. We glared at each other for a moment before I glanced down and saw the skull necklace. After a moment I let go of his collar and apologised but watched as he went to the bar and ordered a Bourbon Double. I checked the poster and sure enough it said the golden skull necklace. The next part was the tattoo; I went to the bar and ordered a tonic water keeping a close but subtle eye on the supposed perpetrator. As he reached forward for his drink his sleeve rode up and I saw the tattoo on his right arm. This was the guy that bumped into Ren. I followed him out the club and down many roads trying to be subtle about it, but that last turning that he made, when I went down to follow him, he had disappeared. I ran down the alleyway and heard his voice ring out from behind me. He had tricked me.

"So it's you? You're following me around?" I turned and waited for him to step out of the shadows. He was taller than me, he looked stronger too, I turned to run and found two of his thugs blocking the way. When I turned around again, two more were blocking the other end. 5 on 1. It didn't look too good. I didn't stand a chance against them. But I didn't let fear show in my features.

"You're the guy behind the serial muggings, aren't you?"

"So what if I am?"

The four other thugs closed in on me and dragged me to a warehouse where they started throwing me between them each giving me a kick or a punch. Passing me around like a toy. I was hardly aware of anything but the pain I was feeling with every hit. At some point I remember thinking that I was glad that Ren had bumped into that pedestrian and spent a short while caught in a staring contest rather then carried on chasing him. It could have been him here. He could have been in worse shape than being arrested.

Once I had been passed around enough times I was thrown onto the floor where the leader fisted my hair and brought my head up to meet his gaze, "have you learnt you're lesson yet?"

"Because of you, someone else has been falsely accused"

"So what?"

I grabbed onto his shirt, pulling myself up slightly, "I'm going to take you to the cops" I knew that I didn't sound convincing. I knew that I was beaten badly and could hardly keep conscious, but I still had to say it.

"Don't fuck with me!" he shouted as he threw me to the side and kicked me in the ribs. They were laughing. All of them where laughing at my weak state.

And then they stopped.

A loud bang was heard.

They all looked around.

They didn't know what it was.

Someone was breaking in.

Someone that they didn't know or didn't want was knocking the door down. It was clear as the thumps got louder and louder. The metal door broke down and crashed into various items nearby causing them to fly in random directions at the inhabitants.

I craned my neck to try and see who it was. I saw the light pouring in through the now open doorway and saw a brief outline of a figure walking towards us. I was so worn out and convinced that whoever this was, they were here to help me. I was delirious and could have sworn I saw the pigtails outline of that stupid new teacher before everything went dark…

--

Ogata woke up with a splitting head ache to see pink sakura petals falling around him. He blinked a few times before he realised they actually were petals and not an after effect of getting hit in the head too hard. He looked around and felt the damp grass under his hands. He saw the profile view of his stupid new teacher and instantly pushed himself into a sitting position.

"You woke up" she said.

"What happened to those guys?"

"Those guys?"

"The culprit"

"When I got there, they had already been apprehended."

"Huh? But…"

_So I was delirious, she can't save all her students at once now can she. maybe I just wanted to see her there…_

"You…going overboard" she grinned at him, "thank you though, for finding the culprit."

"It has nothing to do with you"

"I was happy"

"Huh?"

"You believed Kazama didn't you?"

"I just paid for what I had done"

"I see"

He stared at her a moment longer before struggling to get up. She tried helping him but he threw her off him.

"I'm not a kid"

"But even so, you are one of my precious students, you and Kazama." She was doing it again, reading their emotions, their thoughts and feelings. Of course, Ogata didn't realise that she had done this to Kazama too, she seemed to realise that Ogata felt somewhat jealous and envious of the attention that she had been giving Kazama. She was showing him that she cared about all her students. All of them were precious too her. Everyone had her trust and everyone would get her help when they need it.

He tried to keep a smile from his face, but when he couldn't he turned it round, "don't make me laugh" he said. He picked up his bag and walked away without saying another word.

--

He was so glad that the real culprit got caught. For once he didn't have to pay the price for someone else's bad doings. It was late when he got home and he fell onto his bed and went straight to sleep.

It was a strange dream. He saw Ogata at the police station when he was taken in. He saw him running into town as though he was looking for someone.

He saw him looking at the poster in his hands that had the details of the culprit. He wasn't really looking for him, was he? He actually believed him? He followed Yamato's journey, not having much of a choice, and followed him from the beginning. When he walked into the club and bumped into the culprit, Ren felt a sudden surge of fear for Ogata curse through him. This guy looked like major trouble. But he continued to follow him as Ogata followed the culprit.

He saw him being trapped and saw him being dragged away. He watched and winced as he was beaten to a pulp and heard an echo of Yamato's voice saying that he was glad Ren had run into that pedestrian that night or this could have been him. He heard the door slam to the floor but only watched as Yamato fell unconscious. The next thing he saw was Yamato still unconscious but in a different location. He was under a sakura tree and the petals falling in his hair and the relaxed expression in his beaten face made him look beautiful and pure. But as Yamato's eyes opened, the scene started to fade and he began to wake up.

He went and showered then threw on some clothes. The more awake he became the more the memories of the dream faded away. He had complexly forgotten he had even had a dream as he heard a knock at the door. He went and opened it and regretted it when he saw the happy chirpy face of Yamaguchi-sensei.

"Ohio!" he tried to close the door but she stopped him, "isn't it great that the culprit was caught?" he gave up on trying to close the door and simply leaned against the door frame avoiding her gaze. He shifted in his place uncomfortably, but finally said a quiet, "yea"

"Ogata found him" and then suddenly that dream and everything in it came back to him as he slowly turned to look at his teacher, "hurry up and get ready to go to school or you'll be late" he walked back into his home and threw on his Akadou High jacket before grabbing his bag and locking up the house. He tried to walk as slow as physically possible to avoid walking with his overly energetic homeroom teacher as they approached the school grounds, "come on Kazama, hurry up!"

When he had finally caught up with his teacher he saw her staring somewhere and heard her call a familiar name, "Ogata" he stared in the same direction. Yamato was sitting on the ground leaning against a wall beside the entrance gate, one leg out stretched and the other bent. When he got a closer look he saw that he seemed to be bruised. They both approached him but he didn't even seem to notice until he saw Yamaguchi crouch down next to him. At this point he looked away irritated, "What are you doing? You'll be late" their teacher said to him. His lip twitched and he let out an exasperated sigh as Kazama approached him looking down at him critically at his plastered lip and bruised cheek bones. Was there something more to his dream then it just being a dream? There was no other way that he could have got those injuries. Not in the short time anyway. He felt something tug at his heart as he saw how exhausted and battered Ogata was. "I heard you found the culprit" he started, this was the most of a 'thank you' that Ogata was going to get from him.

"it's not like it was for your sake or anything" he stared off in his uncaring fashion that was so typically Yamato.

He then looked back over at him and spoke again, "I still haven't settled things with you yet"

Ren looked away, not feeling as though he could handle looking at Ogata's eyes at the moment. He was so confused. With the strange dreams and it mixing with reality, he wasn't sure if he was always going to be able to tell the difference anymore. He did however look at his teacher when he felt her eyes on him. He looked at her, half glaring to make her look away, but when she carried on looking at him with that knowing smile he couldn't stay quiet, "what?" he asked. Not completely sure he really wanted to know. But she just looked away and made a sound similar to that of a fan-girl squeal. "Yosh! Let's say you guys have buried the hatchet for the time being" she said as she rubbed their heads briefly before being thrown off.

"Hatchet?" they asked simultaneously.

"Ah... well… I mean... made up, made up" she corrected quickly.

Ren chanced a glance at Yamato before the other new teacher came out calling for Yamaguchi, "Yamaguchi-Sensei! It's terrible! Hurry up and come!" she called.

Yamaguchi and the other teacher ran towards the assembly building, Ogata and Kazama staying behind a bit. They turned their gazes back onto each other and simply looked at each other for a minute. They weren't glaring, or competing, they just looked into each others' eyes trying to read each other. Ren was the first to make a move. He reached his hand out towards Yamato and waited for him to take it. Yamato looked at the hand for a while before taking it and allowing Ren to help him up. He brought him up so quickly that they nearly crashed into each other. Instead their hands were clutching each other's tightly as they stared into each others' eyes before casting a downward look at each others lips. They felt each others breaths reach them and acting purely on impulse, Yamato closed his eyes and placed his lips on Ren's. aAfter the initial shock, Ren too closed his eyes and they stood there for a moment before parting and looking away from each other, "l-lets go" Ren managed to stammer out as he chased slightly behind Yamato towards the hall.

When they reached the hall Yamaguchi was walking towards the stage and getting up on it.

"you guys. Clear your ears and listen carefully." Ogata and Kazama stood a good two meters apart not even sparing each other a glance looking directly ahead being able to blame the slight pink in their cheeks on running rather than blushing, "you don't call yourselves comrades, if your just hanging together to have fun. Real comrades take each other head on; they have complete faith in one another. Don't live a meaningless life not knowing that much! You still have a lot of time till you graduate. It's not too late. Make some real invaluable comrades. I'll be with you until the very end. Don't run away!" why did the two boys at the back feel as though this was directed at them? Everyone in the hall, all the teachers at least, were staring at her in admiration having felt the impact of her words. The 3-D guys looked doubtful about what she had said, but Yamato and Ren felt as though that could have been directed at them they felt that Yamaguchi knew what had happened after she had left and saw them running away. But anything that they thought they felt for the other they locked away and replaced it with renewed anger and hate.

They had started out hating each other. That soon changed. However, coming to terms with their new feelings was an entirely different matter.

* * *

_This was very hard to spell check… 17 pages damn it!_

_Don't expect the next one any time soon. But expect it eventually._

_i had this on my computer for like a month before i posted it. i thought i would get a few more done before i started posting but then i just figured, why not?_

_gives me more time for reviews anyway. so yea!_

_i have made a hotmail account for my readers to add me on if they would like to talk to me or if they would like to email me without it being edited by fanfiction_

_it will not show up in the chapter if i type it so if you would like to add me then go onto my profile page and it will be there._

_anyone is welcome to add but those who aren't nice will be blocked and deleted. _

_that is all_

_sharing the love_

_please review!_

_m m m . kai . m m m_


	2. Chapter 2

_I think at some point I wrote Kamiya instead of Kuraki. But I couldn't find it. If I did and it doesn't really make sense, then you know who I mean. And sorry if u find it lol_

* * *

How long has it been since that teacher came to our school? A week already? I'm surprised she is still here. She just gets to work with the class as though we are paying attention even though we glare at her and don't pay attention at all. She has guts to still be here. She had crossed my mind only briefly as I walked with Kamiya and Honjou to school when we heard her annoying voice calling our names from behind us.

"Ohiyo!" she called to us.

"what? Man, she's too high-strung this early in the morning." Honjou said was he watched her wave enthusiastically at us. What, did she want us to wave back? Yeah right.

"lame" Kamiya complained as he threw his head back and thrust his hands in his trouser pockets.

"let's go" I called to them as she started running towards us. Like hell I'm walking to school with a teacher. We ran away from her as she called after us, "hey… hey! Omairo."

She stopped running, but just our luck we ran up the hill right towards Kazama and his crew. They were all jumping around looking like idiots. All of them seemed to be happy as though they were children with stupid idiotic grins on their faces, pleased by such simple things and it seemed somewhat relieving to see Kazama with a smile on his face. A part of me thought that it made him look so much more… innocent and childlike. But that was probably just because they were complimenting each other on a good jump on their way to school. We stopped when we saw them, merely a couple meters away and they slowed down and stopped their playing around when they saw us. Their smiles gone, it was back to the glaring contests as Honjou shook his bag by his side in an aggressive manner.

I had forced myself to refrain from thinking back to the kiss that Kazama and I had shared the day after he was cleared of the mugging charges. And our glaring contests were the same as before. Neither of us wanting to talk about what had happened, neither of us _needing_ to talk about what had happened. It had been a mistake… an accident. I tried to forget the detail of _how_ our lips had become merged together and of how soft and warm his lips felt against mine and convinced myself that it was an accident that would never happen again. I wasn't given much of a chance to really think about anything as Yamaguchi called after the group in front of me, having failed after calling us, she was their problem now.

"Kazama, Ichimura, Kuraki! Oooi ohiyo!" she called to them in her cheerful voice. Ichimura voiced my earlier thoughts of the day about her lasting longer than other teachers and Kuraki responded by asking if they thought he should punch her one of these times. The idea hadn't escaped me, but a part of me found this teacher suspicious and I felt as though a thoughtless punch from a student would be easily dodged by her, but I threw these thoughts away when they occurred; she was a small female teacher, what could she do?

"just leave the damn teacher alone" Kazama didn't seem to particularly care that the teacher was still here. Maybe he felt in debt to the teacher for attempting to prove his innocence the previous week and believing him when no one else would. Maybe he trusted her after one thing that she did, apparently, for him. But then he would be stupid. Everyone in 3-D knew better than to trust a teacher. But none the less, he walked away from the teacher and from me and was soon followed by Kuraki and Ichimura. We walked slightly behind them as they walked to school, postponing our glairing contest for later on.

--

_What is wrong with me?! That stupid kiss- no! Not even a kiss, his lips just happened to touch mine. That's all... argh! Whatever it was, I can't get 'it' out of my head! How am I supposed to glare at his damn face and look him in those ferocious looking eyes of his if I can't stop thinking about that… 'thing' that happened. _I had tried the last week to get rid of the thoughts I had about that event and kept the same composure that I had had for the last two years and glared as I always did. I wouldn't let him know that I was battling hard to forget about it when he obviously had no trouble forgetting. I wouldn't let this corrupt my plans of beating him. I won't let him take over my head!

I went over to my desk on the opposite side from Ogata and sat down talking to Ichimura and Kuraki as usual. Somewhere along the lines our conversation had stopped and I spent some time staring in Ogata's direction. Who cares how it started, but somehow a fight broke out within the class about 10 of the guys were fighting and taunting each other, the tables had been moved to make room for their battle and the rest of the class had made a circle around them to egg them on and enjoy the free show. I wasn't interested in their petty punches and name calling. Neither was Ogata. I knew this because we were having another glaring contest. I and he were in our own world where nothing seemed to get through to us.

That is until….

"Temera! Give it a break already! If you want to fight that badly I'll take you on! Let's go outside!"

_That_ caught our attention. The class was deathly quiet, some of the pairs fighting still in their last position frozen in them, but all staring at the ridiculous teacher. First she sticks up for me, then she wants to take on the entire class in a fight? What is she thinking? What kind of teacher is she?

"Yamaguchi-sensei" Sawatari whispered to her.

"kowaii" the deputy muttered in shock.

A look of realisation seemed to dawn on her determined face and her look or fierceness turned into panic as she gasped, she shifted uncomfortably in her place, "ano…" she got down from the table she had been standing on and students on the ground shifted away from her in fear. It was strange seeing the drastic change in her, to both sides that I had never seen before. She had my attention but in the corner of my eye I could see Ogata eyeing her suspiciously. He didn't seem as surprised to see this angry, fight-hungry side of our new teacher.

"aite… aite te te te te" she reached down and grabbed her ankle as she called out her apparent pain… like anyone would buy that… actually, with the idiots in this class, they probably would. But something was up with this teacher. There was something very different about her indeed. She got up again and smiled a too sweet smile to the class of scared males. Soon after that, all fights had been thoroughly stopped and the damn teachers were able to leave again. It's for the best if she doesn't try and get involved with us. We were fine without her and we would be if she decided that she didn't want to work here anymore.

--

We had all gone separate ways when she left. All of us splitting into our various 'friendship groups'. When lunch came around Honjou, Kamiya and I went and lay under a tree on the grounds enjoying the heat of the sun. Most of the time we lay there silently, each of us in our own thoughts, me trying desperately to have no thoughts, or at least, no thoughts about Kazama that didn't include pounding his sorry ass into the ground; it was the only way to keep me from thinking about that damn stupid moment where I pressed my lips to him and keeping the memory of their texture and the need to do it again, at bay.

"shall we ditch school?" Honjou asked.

"you'd only get sleepy anyway" Kamiya reasoned. I stretched my arms up having been half asleep in the welcoming sun when Honjou called to me, "huh, what should we do, Yamato?"

"how annoying" I always had to come up with a plan didn't I. well, it's not surprising. I am, after all, their leader.

"so this is where you were!" damn it, she was by our side again, acting all cheerful and friendly. We all got up immediately and glared at the infuriating lady.

"don't bug us during lunch time" I told her.

"lunchtime is valuable, why don't we talk about things? Ha ha ha"

"shut the hell up" _thank you Honjou_ I couldn't have said it better myself. I may have been a member of 3-D but I still refrained from talking too badly to anyone when I could help it. I preferred to keep a calm exterior and prevent people from getting under my skin, unlike my hot headed friend Honjou. However I wasn't always able to control my temper, especially when it came to Kazama Ren.

"shoo" Kamiya waved his hand at her in a manner you did to an annoying dog as we walked away from her. We would look for another tree to rest under…

--

"ah. Hey!" she was calling after Ogata and the other two after Kamiya had just shooed her. Had you ever seen something so pathetic? Everything about it was laughable, from the way she had approached them to the way they had brushed her off so easily.

All three of us, Kuraki, Ichimura and I, laughed at her, freely saying how lame she was. She just turns around and calls to me as though we hadn't done anything.

"Kazama" she raises her hand in a friendly gesture.

"baka ja ne?" Ichimura asks her. We snigger a while longer before running away from her with her hand still in the air, "'hey' she said ha ha right"

"she really is an idiot isn't she"

Who cares what we did when we left. We messed about and laughed at our stupid new teacher making light hearted bats about what she would do next to try and get 'in' with us. Anything to distract me from the memory of Ogata and the dreams I had been having. Unfortunately, none of us had come up with 'kick the can'. What was that anyway?

We had returned to our class and when we were in our seats she put a tin on the table, "let's start the 3-D 'kick the can' competition! Woo yeah!" she called out to us all trying to get us to join in with her celebration, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. We all just wanted this teacher gone, so things could go back to how they were before, but a part of me realised that if she hadn't been here, then I would be in jail right now, and the mugger would still be out there.

"what?" the whole class called out together. That would probably be the most we would ever do together as a class. I shook my head at her and looked away noticing the incredulous look that Ogata was giving her. I don't mind if she's here. Not if she will actually listen to us when other teachers don't. But does she have to put herself in these traps? I knew that no one would go, but a part of me felt as though I owed her, as though I should go so she isn't completely on her own. I wasn't ready to trust her just yet, but I was more open to her being around than the others were. Of course, I knew that there was no way Ichimura and Kuraki would go with me, and I wasn't feeling _that_ bad so I would leave her like the rest of the class.

"hey! Why do we have to do this childish crap?" Honjou was never one for keeping his thoughts to himself.

"what this class needs right now is a sense of solidarity and friendship", so there's a method to her madness? It doesn't matter what she thinks this class needs. She is in over her head if she thinks anyone will listen to her, "in order to build that, everyone needs to work and sweat together and get passionate about the same thing" _sweat? Ha-ha she's definitely lost them now_ I couldn't help but inwardly smirk as her mistake, "of course, I'll be participating too"

"how stupid"

"whatever"

"what a drag"

"what the hell is 'kick the can' anyway?" Kuraki asked what most were probably thinking.

"huh? You don't know?" she seemed amazed that we wouldn't know what the stupid game was. How interesting could a game called 'kick the can' be anyway?

"we don't know, ne?" Kamiya called out amongst the class, however whether he was humouring the teacher or he genuinely didn't know, I couldn't tell. Various members of the class called out saying they don't know.

"you don't know the fiery and fun game? The world is at its end" how very dramatic. I wasn't interested in her ramblings; my only concern was when I was going to get that fight with Ogata. It had been a week since I told him that I wanted to fight him. I barely noticed Ichimura telling her that she always exaggerated things. That was probably true, but I was getting used to her stupid over the top ramblings, it was getting easier to block them out. My mind was unable to remove Ogata, so if I had to think about him, I was going to try and think about when we would finally have our fight. I wasn't going to let him push me around and I wasn't going to let him walk all over me. I wasn't going to go down without a real fight.

"kick the can is a game where you use your head and physical strength to save your comrades from 'it'" she began to explain the game that probably no one really wanted to know about. "in other words it's a battle that requires teamwork. It's a perfect game for this class right now" _your right. If this class wanted to learn about teamwork then it would be great. However in this class, your only friends until you need to depend on someone_. _Once you need their help, it's everyone for themselves._ It was a bitter thought but a true one none the less. Unless victory was guaranteed, they weren't involved. "yosh! Everyone change into your gym clothes and meet me in the school yard!" she threw her fist in the air and left with a bounce in her step obviously thinking that we would actually want to play the stupid game and that she had made 'progress'. Yeah right…

"I have a better idea than 'kick the can'" Ogata called to the quiet class when Yamaguchi was clear of the classroom. I looked at him and we were in a glare once again, this was it. We would finally have our fight to determine the leader of 3-D. "we're doing this now. No more waiting"

He was in front of me now his hands on the table I sat behind. I stood up and signalled to the door, "lead the way" he grabbed his bag and we all walked out towards our destination in silence where at long last this would be over. Our leader would be decided and I wouldn't have to worry about the dreams I had where he beat me to the ground or where we did things other than fighting.

The rest of the class stood in a line outside the shrine as Ogata and I stood across from each other preparing ourselves for what we had waited for, for so long. We threw our bags to the side as the calls began from the sidelines, "don't lose Yamato!" obviously the hot-headed Honjou was calling out and backing up his friend, until he lost.

"deck him good Ren!" Kuraki called out to me, but I knew somewhere in my mind that he would probably side with Yamato if I were to lose this battle. I tried hard to focus on the fight ahead but images of my dreams kept coming to the front of my head. It was only the calls that helped keep them away.

"you'd better win!" another call for Ogata from Kamiya.

"Go ahead and knock him out" confident Ichimura seemed sure I would be able to, of course, so was I.

"go! Go! Alright!" the rest of the class began to call at us now. I don't think they particularly cared who won; they just wanted to see a good fight. They wanted to know who would be their leader and defend them when the times came where they needed to be defended. Who would be their fearless leader? They were about to find out.

"don't lose you two! Go all out! Fire away!" _that voice… oh no. you have got to be kidding me._ Everyone quietened down at the feminine screeching and turned to see the short teacher punching her fists out as she joined in the cheers, "fight fight!" she called. _Like hell I'm fighting in front of a teacher. No teacher allows fighting. Surely not even this one!_

"why are you here?" Yamato called to her before I had the chance.

"anyway, wouldn't you normally stop it?" I chimed in, determined to find out how this teacher thought. I thought that she would do what she did the other time she had slipped up and retrace her footsteps and tell us to not fight, but instead….

"there's no need to stop a 'bare-one', right?"_ what is she talking about?_ I thought as everyone looked at her with confused expressions.

"bare-one?" they chimed together.

She sighed exasperated, "a bare-handed one-on-one fight. Don't you know?"

"of course we don't!" Honjou's expression and tone made it clear that none of us had ever heard of that term before. But that didn't seem to make her falter. She just put a hand in the air as though making an oath and said that she wouldn't stop us.

"go ahead and fight each other with all your strength" she encouraged, this was ridiculous. I was almost tempted to throw a punch, at Ogata or her I didn't know yet, but the way that Ogata was staring at her cautiously made me think that it was some sort of trick or trap. "you guys will become real comrades"

"Comrades?" _that_ threw me off; I didn't want to be friends with Ogata. I wanted to beat his ass in the dirt and prove that no one could just push me around however they like to. Well, that's what I wanted on the surface, somewhere deep down… deep deep down, I secretly longed for his lips on mine again. I wanted my dreams to be reality but even _I _didn't know that at the time.

"right. Guys wanting to be the boss are like that" so it was decided then? As soon as we fought, we would become comrades? What world is she living in?

"what do you mean comrades?" Ichimura asked

"you keep saying that, don't you?" Kuraki noted.

"let me tell you" Ogata called out, "I'm not fighting for that" he wasn't? A tired look crossed her face as she sighed and made her way towards Ogata, but just then, her phone rang, she rushed through her bag.

"just a minute" she called out as she answered her phone, "moshi moshi?" she walked away from us by only a few meters as the class looked in the direction of Ogata, Yamaguchi and I. I don't know who they were looking at, but I was looking at Ogata, trying to figure out what it was that he was fighting for and him looking at me probably trying to work his way back into my head.

"a brawl at Shirokin shrine?" _what was that?_ Everyone had heard her talking and walked closer to hear what was going on.

"……" they couldn't hear what was being said on the other side.

she gulped as she covered the speaker and said "how did you know?"

"……" they only heard the silence that signalled something was being said.

But then her tone changed back into the sweet voice of hers that she put on, "ah, there must be some kind of mistake."

"……" they couldn't help but wonder what she was talking about.

"Those guys have an unexpectedly adorable side." Eh? Which guys? There's no way she was talking about us. "there's nothing to worry about. Talk to you later" she quickly hung up the phone and turned to look at us, not surprised by our change in positions, she seemed anxious about something.

"the fuzz are coming" she called out in a warning voice… hang on…

"fuzz?" we all called out.

"the cops! Everybody run!" only then did we all realise how bad this was and started running in all different directions to get away from Shirokin shrine before the police got there. I don't need to be taken in _again_! She encouraged us all to split up into different directions and Ichimura, Kuraki and I ran as far as we could reaching a small river and bridge when we slowed down and Kuraki complained saying that he was going to die from running so much.

"this is bad. I'm at my limit" Ichimura slipped in panting and trying to regain his breath.

"man, what is Yamaguchi thinking?" I was still trying to catch my breath back as my thoughts processed through my head. It _was_ them that she had said has an adorable side. Kyoto must have been told that there was going to be a fight at Shirokin shrine and called Yamaguchi to warn her about her students. She stood up for them and protected them from Kyoto and then warned them and got them to escape before they were all caught. She really as protecting them wasn't she but the situation earlier was still probing my mind.

"seriously, where do you find a teacher who would cheer for a one-on-one fight?"

"I'm right here"

We turned to the voice still breathless, "wha!" _where the hell did she come from?!_ We all backed away from where we sat as she sat there comfortably regaining her breathe.

"why are you here?!" Kuraki yelled at her having had enough surprises for one day.

"don't follow us around" I've had it with her by now as well. If she wants to stand up for us and defend us then that's fine. But don't follow us around as if your part of our group.

"I can't help it" she claimed, "I thought you and Ogata had made peace? " I couldn't look at her as she said this to me, "why do you guys want a one-on-one so badly? Do you have some sort of history with him?"

"nothing like that, but he's picking a fight with me. I have to take him on." _I won't let anyone push me around anymore._ I thought solemnly.

She laughed at me, "why don't you just ignore him?"

I couldn't keep my voice calm anymore and stood up to look down on her, "he'll look down on me then!" I growled out, my voice calmed down somewhat as I explained my reasoning, "in this world, there are only enemies, or allies. I can't allow an enemy to look down on me" I could feel when Ichimura and Kuraki's eyes turned away from my back and they looked down towards the ground.

"Ogata isn't an enemy. You know that, don't you?" a part of me did. A part of me, the part that wouldn't keep the thoughts of Ogata and the dreams I had locked up, was telling me that he wasn't an enemy. That he meant more to me than an ally. But that didn't change the fact that he was picking a fight with me and I couldn't have him looking down on me. I turned away from her and strode away. Ignoring her call for me and hearing her calling after Kuraki, telling me that he had run after me.

"Ren was bullied in elementary school" Ichimura had told her now. I couldn't change anything and his words faded from my hearing range as his voice quietened. I didn't care if she knew about my past; I just didn't want to be the one telling her about it. But maybe now she would understand why I had to fight him.

--

We ran away from the shrine at such speed. So much adrenaline was pumping through me. Wanting to get away before the police arrived and the anger that I felt at having got so close to settling things with that damn Kazama! Fighting him was going to be my only true way to get him off my mind. Once I had beaten the crap out of him I would no longer have to fight the urge to hold him and put my lips back on his. I wanted to escape this needing feeling that I felt when I thought back to him. His smile from earlier that day kept coming back to the front of my mind and almost made me smile when I thought of it. Almost. But it kept my legs moving all the way back to the hang out where we rested and caught our breath back. We said nothing for a while not having anything to say and we settled for a game of darts.

"you were so close to settling things with Ren" Honjou was kind enough to remind me and refuel my anger and agitation.

"man, that teacher's so annoying" Kamiya decided to add.

Right now that damn teacher was the least of my worries. As much as I hated to admit it, she had just saved all of our asses; if she hadn't been there and told us that the police were on their way then we would all probably be in the station right now. But her words always got to me, "what 'real comrades'? don't make me laugh" I said as I took a sip of my drink. "next time, I'll be sure to crush him" I slammed my glass on the table and heard her voice coming in through the door.

"why do you have to go that far?" she asked me. what did it matter to her? It didn't! this was between me and Ren! "why do you want to fight so badly?"

I laughed as I looked away from her and explained my reason for fighting, "I can be No. 1 only in fighting"

"huh" I knew she wouldn't understand me.

"I'm no good at studying or sports. Is that bad?" I asked her somewhat mockingly.

"why do you need to be No. 1?" she had worn away at my patience and I threw a basket out the way and stood in front of her shouting at her to not patronise me.

"damn teachers like you" I continued, "all you do is set ranks!"

"then let me ask you this, by fighting to be No. 1 aren't you setting ranks? When you are doing the same thing, do you have the right to talk all high and mighty?" I glared at her as my lip twitched and strode away from her before I punched her, with my 'comrades' following behind me like dogs following their owner. If I wasn't No. 1, then they wouldn't have a reason to follow me, they wouldn't have a reason to be associated with me.

But once we had got further down the road the other two and split off to go home anyway. It was late and I was now on my own. I leant against a light post as that stupid teacher's words swam through my head. _Why do you need to be number one?_

Maybe she had had a similar talk with Kazama and now he was also on his own walking down one of these streets thinking about something that teacher had said.

--

I walked to school as usual with Ichimura and Kuraki. Yamato walked up to me as soon as he saw me outside the school grounds. He stood in my way glaring at me, "we end this now" he was already on his own. I gave a subtle nod to my companions and they glared at him with smirks on their faces as they walked away and left the two of us together. I'd had another dream the night before. We were fighting and he had pinned me to the floor straddling my hips and pinning my arms above my head as he leant down and bit my neck. The image of that came flooding back to my head as we walked to the park we would fight in but I pushed it away and only focussed on fighting him as we got into position and stared at each other again.

"let's do this" he called out to me.

"time out" I looked away from him knowing he would be confused.

"what?

"ne, can we stop this already?" I asked. Yamaguchi's words had been prying my mind for all my conscious state that night and I decided to try and see if she was right or not. If he insisted on fighting… he was an enemy.

"what the hell are you talking about?"

"I don't really care if you lead the class" I really didn't. I just didn't want to be looked down on or pushed around.

"that'd be meaningless" he shouted at me, "unless I beat you in a fight, I can't call myself the head!" he seemed so determined about it. So passionate almost. And his determination to defeat me was as though he had never got close enough to _try_ and press his lips on mine the way he had a week ago. _No_ I pushed those memories away and focussed on what was happening now.

"I don't really care anymore about being the head or ruling Akadou." I wasn't going to fight him. I was trying to call a truce, but he just started running towards me while telling me to start caring. He threw a fist in my face and kicked me in my chest as I fell to the ground clutching at the leaves beneath me as he called out and beckoned me to fight him.

Painful memories flashed through me as I pushed myself up to face him, "you ass!" I screamed as I threw a fist into his recently healed face. I threw another punch at him but he ducked and got me straight afterwards. I was bent over as he strode towards me and kicked me in the stomach, kicking me again to raise my chest and push me down with another shove of his foot. I kicked him back till he was on the floor and grabbed at his school blazer and told him to stand up as we wrestled followed by him choking me and me throwing him over my shoulder. He got up and we both faced each other hitting and missing, kicking and missing until we both kicked the other away from us. I heard him moving behind me as I pushed myself up and saw a piece of wood beside me. After a quick internal battle, I grabbed it and tuned around ready to use it. He had one as well and we both threw our entire weights into delivering that blow but was stopped midway when Yamaguchi turned up and blocked both our attacks with her arms.

"stop playing around!" she shouted at us as she threw both of us to the ground with ease, "a one-on-one is supposed to be bare-handed" like hell we cared. We weren't doing a one-on-one. I wanted to call it quits! He's a damn enemy if ever I saw one.

"Whether bare-handed or armed, wining is all that matters in a fight"

"you didn't stop us yesterday did you. So why the hell are you stopping us now?!" I all but screamed at her as adrenaline flooded through my veins. Who was she to tell us what we could or couldn't do? Who was she to suddenly change her mind and decide that she _doesn't_ want us fighting?

"because yesterday was barehanded" she answered simply, "the brats nowdays don't know how to fight properly. They don't understand moderation, they go overboard. Listen up. When you hit someone, your own fist hurts, right? If you feel that pain, you shouldn't want to hit someone for no good reason."

"we don't need a lecture on hitting someone! A fight is fought in order to win!" she looked at us with a pitying expression.

"that's not it at all" she said. What would she know? What would she know about fighting? The rules the reasons. She has probably never hit anyone in her life. She probably only heard that your own fist hurts from someone else. How could she possibly understand why and what we fight for?

"Yamato!" his crew had arrived.

"Ren!" so had mine.

It was over.

"what's going on?"

"I don't know"

I supose they would be confussed wouldn't they. They expected to come and find one of us out cold on the ground bloodied up and the other to be standing strong, victorious. Not getting a lecture from a teacher. And she still carries on talking.

"alright, listen well. People can't live on their own. In order to live you have to have comrades. Real comrades are those who will be with you when you're in the most pain. They can show their tears and weaknesses infront of you." What a nice thought. How nice it would be to have a real comrade. A small part of me, the part that would't let me forget about the dreams or the kiss was telling me that it would be nice if I had Yamato as a real comrade. "before you realise it, their by your side. A fight is to protect those comrades and other things that are precious to you. Fighting for yourself is meaningless." She was directing this at Yamato. It was clear. But he wasn't taking any of it. His lip twitched beforehe spoke.

"can it with the pretty words! I can't take all this shit from you teachers!" it felt as if he had given me another blow to the chest. His words weren't directed at me in anyway. He was telling Yamauchi to shut the hell up saying how he couldn't stand her words and her speeches. But it felt as though he was saying that there was no way that me and him could ever be comrades. And it hurt.

"Ogata!" she called to him. I gave him one more sideways glance before turning around and briskly walking the other direction. "Kazama!" what more could she have to say? Could she really pull more 'pretty words' out her ass to put into a speech? I wasn't going to give her the chance and carried on walking.

"just don't forget this!" she called desperately, "theres no top, bottom, high or low amongst comrades. Those things don't matter!" she lives in an ideal world doesn't she. She thinks that everyone is equal when they are comrades. People are always competing and there are always ranks whether people realise it or not. They are there. It's why Ichimura and Kuraki follow me and why Kamiya and Honjou follow Ogata.

--

We had walked away from Yamaguchi and her idealistic chatter. _Fighting for yourself is meaningless_ , that's what she said. Well what if your defending your honour? Or your title? Is it meaningless then? What if your trying to prove something to yourself? But then I remembered when I was caught in the middle of a fight last week. When I was trying to prove that Kazama was innocent. Was I fighting for him then? No, even then I was just fighting to put right what I had done wrong. It had nothing to do with Kazama.

We had got to a bridge below a road where I kicked a nearby bin and emptied its contents with my kick screaming out my frustration. He was consuming my mind, and I needed to get him out of it. I stormed forward and bumped shoulders with some passer by, I turned around and glared at him, grabbed him by his shirt collar and shouted at him, "watch where you're walking asshole!"

"you're the one who ran into me!" he shouted back.

"hey Yamato, just leave it" Honjou suggested. But no, I wouldn't leave it. I needed to get Kazama and that stupid teacher out of my head. I fight for myself. No one else. And I fight to win. I completely ignored Honjou and shouted back at the guy again.

"stop acting like an idiot!" I shouted as I punched him in the face and he fell to the ground.

"damn that hurts!" he shouted.

"get up!" I ordered as I pulled him up off the ground. I punched him in the gut and as he fell to the floor kicked him repeatedly. I was going to win. No one would stop me. Not Yamaguchi and deffinetly not Kazama. I was the No. 1 fighter. I wouldn't stop kicking him. I was deaf to everything other than the darkness where I continuely kicked the jerk that bumped me and all I could hear was the sound of contact of my foot in his stomach. But the next thing I know, Kamiya and Honjou are beside me, holding onto my arms and trying to pull me away saying that we needed to get out of there. But I tried to fight them off and tried to get to him again. It had worked. I was only focussing on kicking his ass. On wining the fight. If they took me away then I would remember again, I would think again.

"Get a grip Yamato!" they shouted at me and they wrapped their arms around my chest and over my arms to hold me back.

"I never want to see your face again!" I shouted as they became more successful in their attempts at keeping me away from the guy on the floor.

"you sure seem to have lots of energy" a voice called from the entrance to the underpass. I stopped what I was doing and looked up to the voice to see a big gang of dangerous looking guys. There was a leader in the front and it was then that I realised that this guy I was beating must be a friend of them. _Shit_ I thought to myself.

--

"Theres a cute girl working at that resteraunt now. Lets go there" Kuraki suggested. We had gone to a random park after leaving the teacher and walked around aimlessly. Not really saying much. 

Ichimura could detect my frustration as I walked around aggressivly and got the message to not say much. Kuraki on the other hand…

"not interested" I replied to his latest suggestion. Of course I'm not interested in a cute girl. I can't get stupid Yamato out of my head! I can't stop thinking about how he threw away the idea of having a comrade so easily. Threw away the idea of having_ me_ for a comrade so easily. It replayed in my head and hurt every time. I was becomeing agitated with Kuraki and his suggestions. Going to the games arcade and playing his best game, going to kareoke and him singing what ever the hell his song is.

"hey. Isn't that Yamato?" Ichimura might have been saying it to test a thoery of his. He may have figured out that Yamato was the cause of my frustration, but I turned around anyway and looked in the direction he was looking at.

"huh?" I jogged towards him to get a beter look and saw a big gang fighting three guys. At least three guys holding each of them as others punched them and threw them around like toys. My eyes widened as I saw Yamato trying to fight against them and yet seeming so helpless against them.

"Even Yamato can't win against that many" Kuraki spoke my thoughts as painful memories forced me to feel every blow that Yamato was receiving.

"woldn't it be better to call the cops to deal with this?" Ichimura, the logical thinker. I didn't think so. Every other sound was blocked from my head as I watched Yamato being thrown around so easily. If word got out about anyone from Akadou 3-D being in a fight, then they would be punished by suspension or expulsion. And somehow, even though he had made it pretty clear that he wasn't planning on being my comrade any time soon, the idea of Yamato not being there anymore made me feel somewhat empty.

_Ogata isn't your enemy. You know that don't you?_ Yamaguchi's words replayed in my head. I really thought now that he wasn't my enemy. I really believed that maybe I could convince him to be my comrade if I treated him like my comrade. I didn't think anymore as I ran at the gang grabbing the first thing I could, that happened to be a pole, that I started swinging around. I warned them to get away and once I had put a sufficient distance between the guys and the gang I told them to run for it and the six of us ran for our lives away from the gang that would rip us to shreads given the chance. We didn't speak as we ran and simply followed in one direction until we believed that we had lost them completely.

We ran to the bridge that we had run to the day before when we were running from the police. And once again Kuraki was the one that started saying he was going to die.

"we should be fine, coming this far" Ichimura said as he sat of the edge to catch his breath back like the rest of us.

"man if I run anymore I'm gunna die!"

"no kidding"

It was only once we had regained our breaths and looked up did we each realise that we were sitting right next to the guys that we had been glaring at for the past two years. Honjou next to Ichimura, Kamiya next to Kuraki and me next to Yamato. Me heart rate picked up again as we looked up into each others eyes and I realised what I had done. How would he react? Would he be thankful? Angry? 

Would things just return to how they had been the same way they had after that kiss? Either way, we all turned away fom who we were sitting next to, pretending to not care about if they were alright and putting back up the barrier of hatred between us seeing if we could see them through the corner of our eyes. I wiped me hand across my forehead before speaking.

"are you hurt?"

"nah" he probably wouldn't admit it even it he was but I accepted his answer.

"soka" there was a slight pause before anyone spoke again. I suspect he had been building up to make himself say it.

"I suppose I owe you one, huh"

"it doesn't matter" I replied soon enough. Comrades don't owe each other. They are there for each other and don't expect anthing back. A real comrade would be there for them without them needing to ask. They don't openly say that they owe each other.

--

The silence was pressuring as we held our backs turned from each other. The other four gradally left, with nothing else to do Kuraki and Ichimura walked together and Kamiya and Honjou walked together incase they bumped into those jerks to act as back up or, whatever.

It was just me and Ren sitting with our backs to each other lost in thought.

_He practially saved me_._ But maybe he was just paying me back for when I caught the real culprit. It must just be that. Maybe I should kiss him again. Wait what? What good would that do?_

It may have seemed random and out of the blue but at the back of my mind I couldn't stop thinking about when his lips were on mine and how they felt. When Yamaguchi had talked about comrades I had sneaked the quickest glance at Ren wondering if he would want to be my comrade after how badly I had wanted to fight him. I wanted to fight him to try and make him forget any idea that he might have had of me being any less of a man for that tiny moment when our bodies met in the most tender of touches.

_Would me think me strange? Repulsed? Had he forgotten already?_

All these thoughts ran through my mind and yet. Before I knew it he was infront of me, lifting my head up with his first and middle fingers and this time it was _him_ who pressed our lips together. But I welcomed it fully even if I was surprised. We looked into each others eyes and our heads moved closer together and even once we were connected we still looked into each others eyes for a reaction. I was the first to close my eyes at the sensation I felt and pressed our lips closer together. But all too soon he pulled away and when I opened my eyes he was gone and I was on my own.

--

I ran home as fast as I could. I didn't know what he would do once our lips were parted. He may have ran after me or attacked me, punched me. or he may have wanted to go further. I doubted that, but he didn't seem to mind how my lips felt agaist his. But I still ran unbelieving of what I had done. I ran home and changed for bed falling asleep quickly but not peacefully. I had another dream, a dream of what would have happened if I hadn't run away, or if he had opened his eys before I had left.

_My lips were on his, I had also closed my eyes seeing that he wasn't repuled by this act. I had to draw away, before I did anything else. I took my lips back to my self and forced my knees off the ground to __try and run before he opened his eyes and I had to be a witness to his reaction. But as I got passed him his hand flew out and got a hold of my wrist._

"_who kisses somone and then runs away? I didn't"_

_I couldn't look at him as he turned around and stood infront of me. He was smaller than me but he look at me with superiority, determination and a slight hint of being hurt._

_We stared at each other like we had so many times before, except his time we weren't looking at each other with hate or anger. His hand was still on my wrist and he held onto my other wrist and pulled me forward to put our lips back together. I think that the majority of the night our lips were simply pressed together and our eyes shut, our fingers had linked together as we stood there and after a long while our lips began to move and massage each other and it felt so good. I had never kissed anyone before but the feeling of being connected to another person and the feelings radiating off of us were full of what my sister watched in those corny chick flicks where they cried at the end because 'Miranda' was finally with 'Carlos' the love of her life who had pulled out a cheesy romantic line and they kissed as the finishing scene._

_We seperated our lips and pecked them together one more time before everything faded…_

And I woke up in my bed. I smiled remembering the dream and touched my lips. I wanted it again. I had got ready with a bounce in my step that I had to stop when Ichimaru and Kuraki turned up at my door to go to school. But I couldn't help moving along quicker than usual as our journey progressed.

"Hold on! I ran so much yesterday! I'm all sore!" it was of course Kamiya who was complaining. _He should excersise more_. I thought to myself as I giggled and continued on our way. He told us to shut up and winged about his aches and pains. "ouch itai te te te te" much like Yamaguchi had the other day in class.

"Kura, you're totally out of shape" I spoke out loud now calling him by his nickname as he screamed to the world "Ah! I can't walk any more!!"

"metabloic syndrome?" Ichiruma suggested.

He chased afer us under another underpass where we stopped our fooling around at the sight of the gang we had run away from yesterday. _Damn it_. We turned to see that hey had trapped us as they thanked us for yesterday. I couldn't help but wonder what our relationship was with Ogata and the others at this moment. Would they pull through for their comrade if they found out?

--

I was angry at myself the next day. Sorely regretting not opening my eyes quicker and grabbing a hold of Ren to kiss him again. I had touched my lips the entire night every time I had thought back to him but I couldn't do that in the presence of Kamiya and Honjou. I had to walk to school the same as every day and wait to see what would happen with Ren.

I wondered where he was when two of the other guys in our class barged in, "come quick! Ren's crew is being attacked by some dangerous guys!"

Only one image came to my mind. "those bastards from yesterday" I informed all those listening. I was fueled by anger at the thought of them taking out their anger on Ren when _I_ was the one that had initially attacked their gang member. He was paying for _my_ actions. I couldn't allow that and ran out the class to find them wether the others were coming with me or not. I heard them calling after me and speaking out loud wondering what they were going to do but after that I heard no more as their footsteps joined mine and we searched for Ren.

I could hear their shouts and yells and the smack as there was contact between their weapons and the bodies of our comrades. I thought of them that way now. Ren anyway. He had turned up out of nowhere and fought for us and helped us. We ran away as a group and he stood by me. I ran with an extra rush of adrenaline towards them and shouted, "yamero!" I chanced a glance at Ren and saw him looking at me with his wide eyes. He didn't think I would come for him. I can see that. But I did and I would make sure to tell him that I will always be his comrade from now on. But they were hurting him _because_ he was my comrade. If I was to help them and get them out of here. I would have to make it clear that they meant nothing to me.

"what, did just the three of you guys come to save them?"

"baka janero?"

They all laughed at us but we didn't weaken our stance.

"those guys weren't involved! Keep your hands off them!" I don't think any of the guys had ever seen me so pissed off or heard me shout so angrily, but they had now. I was beginning to understand what that teacher meant when she talked about fighting for someone that you cared about.

"don't fuck with me. they're your comrades, right?"

"they're not my comrades" I could see the hurt expression in Ren's eyes. I didn't want to hurt him. He had seemed so hopeful and happy when I had arrived and all of that died with 4 words. But it seemed that the leader of the gang was the only one who saw through my bluff.

"stop talking nonsense!"

They all ran at us and ran at them going straight into the fight. I knew that the chances of us wining would be small. It was three of us against about 15 of them. And then 6 against 15 if Ren and the others were still up for fighting. But I had to defend it. I had to fight for him. Luckily they did get up and the field was a little more evened out as we fought side by side. We weren't loosing completely and gave as many hits as we received, to begin with anyway. I felt Ren behind me as we both kicked our own approaching attacker but it had soon turned against us. They had circled me and Ren and were attacking us with poles and their bare hands and feet. I could here Kuraki calling to Kamiya as he was hit. A form of proof for our new comradship. Whilst quickly looking out for the situation my new and old comrades were in I saw Honjou using his own body as a shield to protect Ichimura and Kamiya now doing the same for Kuraki. We were falling and we were falling quickly. I didn't think we would make it. But then Yamaguchi arrived. I didn't know what she would be able to do. You can't convince everyone with a speech.

"cut it out!" she shouted louder than I had heard her before. Everyone stopped and we all looked up at her as she jumped from a great height with ease. "haven't you had enough?" she asked the deadly gang.

"Yamaguchi…" Ren spoke her name out to the air. He was wondering, like me, why she was here.

"Why is a teacher…" Ren may have become my friend, but I still didn't trust teachers and didn't understand why they would be here. Of course, being in the situation I was in, I couldn't think a whole lot and could just bare witness to what happened as the gang approached her.

"who the hell are you?" the leader asked.

"I'm those guys homeroom teacher" it hardly makes her seem threatening. It would have been better to lie and say she was the police or someone of a higher power.

"Senko?" he repeated as the rest of the gang laughed. They weren't scared and they wouldn't hold back because she was a female. I couldn't understand what she was doing. "because you teachers aren't dependable, we're teaching them a lesson"

"lesson?"

"this brat messed up one of my comrades" he pointed at me and I looked away as I felt Ren's eyes turn on me. He hadn't known about what I had done. If he had, he probably wouldn't have stepped in to help me. I felt more ashamed from him giving me that shocked look than from the teacher giving me that look.

"is that true?" she asked, well I was hardly going to lie.

I easily looked her in the eye and said, "yeah"

"I see" she didn't seem to want to stand up for us either anymore. Maybe it would be best if she would say, 'well then, carry on with your lesson' and leave us rather than getting hurt herself, but she carried on talking "I'm very sorry for that" and then she bowed down to them. She bowed down! To these thugs! They would have beaten us up whether I had beaten up their comrade or not and she is bowing to them apologising for me! The others couldn't believe it either and we all looked at her with disbelief. What the hell would she do next? "as you can see, these guys are still imature. Because of that, they make mistakes and cause trouble for others. From now on as their homeroom teacher I'm planning on teaching them right from wrong. Could you please spare those guys? Could you please return them to me?" she bowed down to them again and waited the leaders reply as we all watched her astonished. Hadn't I only a week ago been jealous of the attention that she was giving Ren and the faith she was showing in him? I had started this whole mess and here she was standing up for me, making excuses for my mistake and asking for them to let me and the others go.

It didn't work though.

"I'm not releasing them. These punks probably won't listen to you anyway. We've got to teach them to fear us here and now." I turned and looked at Ren when I felt him pale. His eyes were glased over in fear and I could only imagine it had something to do with a past situation. Had he been in a position like this before? When he was taught to fear? I reached my hand over towards his and placed them ontop of each other and started to stroke his hand reasuringly as he pulled out of it and looked at me before I gave a small nod and we turned to look at what was going on with our teacher and the gang. We seperated our hands as we saw one of the members walking towards our teacher.

He reached for her wrist but in an instant she had twisted his hand behind his back and he was keeping from calling out in pain. All of our eyes widened at her strength and ease and we raised our heads to see better and see more of what she could do. She threw him to the ground and took two steps forward and removed her two hair ties and glasses as she spoke, "it doesn't seem like you're someone I can reason with."

"you're getting carried away while we're going easy on you. Hey, get her" the entire gang ran towards her as we looked in shock as she dodged and punched and threw each guy to the ground one by one. The used their positions and weapons against them and never hesitated for a moment, swiftly moving through one attack to another. Those left standing backed away from her in fear as their leader moved forward towards her. She didn't seem intimidated in the slightest.

"don't fuck with us" he warned her as he threw a punch at her. She grabbed it with ease and held it tightly as she spoke again.

"you're in trouble if you think I'm just another woman. I wont hold back in order to protect my precious students."

"you bitch!" he threw his other fist toards her but she caught that as well and turned him several times before pushing him to the ground with the rest of his gang. None of us could believe the look of absolute fear on their faces as they backed away from our teacher. We couldn't believe the strength that she had and wondered how we had never noticed it before or where it came from.

"whats wrong?" she asked, "you want some more?!"

"shit, I'll remember this!" the not-so-powerful leader shouted at her and he and his crew scuried out of the wharehouse we were in.

Once they were gone, we all pushed ourselves to our feet, and me and Ren being the stronger of the now one large group were able to stand on our own whereas the other two pairs used each other to stay standing.

"why are you that strong?" why bother waiting to ask the question we all wanted answered?

"that's because… I want to protect what is important to me" that's not the answer that I wanted to hear. We looked at her with mixed emotion as she carried on talking, "you guys sure are idiots getting this beat up. but you're pretty admirable. You did well, guys"

None of us could look at her and I felt Ren looking towards me.

"don't praise us," Honjou was the first to speak.

"these guys helped us yesterday," I explained why Honjou didn't feel the need to be praised.

"having a debt is annoying, you know." Kamiya finished.

"it's not like we did much to save you," Ren said, his eyes wide.

"we all just ran away together," Ichimura smiled as he said those words, the memory seemed to be a fun one for him.

"it wasn't cool at all." Kuraki finished their humble story.

"that's just fine. when you realised, you were running. When you realised, you were together. That's just fine. That's comradery" she said.

I turned to Ren and he turned to me. I wanted to do what I hadn't done the night before, but here wasn't the place, and now wasn't the time.

"hey you guys, lets go back to school" Yamaguchi suggested.

We followed her back to school, back in our original groups we walked behind her. It was a quiet walk back but once we had stepped through the school gates we all came to a stand still. She had carried on walking without realising that we had stopped. I signalled for us to run away from behind her and we did. As we turned the corner we looked at each other knowingly.

"kick the can" we all said.

We ran to the class and got the can from the desk ignoring the questions and looks we were provided with and soon we were back outside. Our line had changed. Me and Ren were on the outside of the line, furthest away from each other and the others were standing one after the other between comrades they had only just made. We walked onto the field where we found Yamaguchi who started shouting at us, "what the heck are you guys doing here?" she asked. We came to a stop a few meters away from her as I put down the can and placed my foot on it, explaining, "we thought we'd give 'kick the can' a try"

"huh?" we could see the shock on her face and new she was getting excited so Ren was quick enough to inform her that we would only do this once.

As expected, her too friendly smile broke out on her face as she ran towards us totally excited and rubbed all of our heads as her way of expercing her happiness. We all ofcourse brushed her away from us as she told us to go and get the rest of the class.

"yoooosh!" she called as she ran to the other side of the field. I looked down the line at Ren as he finished fixing his hair and spoke, "what a strange teacher"

I turned back and looked in her direction, "yeah, but she's kind of interesting" the others seemed to agree and I saw a smile tug at Rens sweet lips that made me long for this game to be over so I could either feel those lips again or dream about them.

--

Okay. So 'kick the can' was kind of fun. But I still refused to play it again. We deffinetly all sweat together. Disgusting. But as everyone had come out of the showers that we had never really needed to use before. Me and Yamato were the only ones remaining. He was toweling his hair dry and I put back on my blazer as he sat down on one of the benches to watch me as I got ready. I saw him through the mirror as I checked that I was decent looking and saw him watching my face the same way I was able to see him.

"why did you kiss me?" he asked. It took me off guard? Why? Because I wanted to. Because I couldn't forget about when it happened the first time. I had to have it again.

"I can ask you the same thing. You were the one that did it first" I turned to look at him and walked up to him sitting down on the bench right next to him. our faces were inches apart as we looked at each other intesely. And seconds later we were attached again. That heavenly sensation was back and as I took a deep breath I could smell the fresh shampoo in his hair. His hands were in my hair holding my head to his so I wouldn't be able to part us like I had before. I held my eyes shut tight and left a sliver against my bottom lip. I assumed that it had been his tongue but kissing was completely new to me and I was unsure what to do. I parted my lips as that seemed to be what he wanted me to do and as soon as I did, his tongue darted in my mouth and searched for my tongue. I reacted to this and moved my tongue against his. The kiss being sloppy as it was obviously his first time as well but we didn't care as my hands went around the back of his neck and held him as close to me as possible as we parted for air, a sliver of drool connecting us. We looked at each other uncertainly as the chain dripped and we wiped it away. He was the first to speak and I had no idea how he could, my mind was all in a jumble but I heard him say, "because I wanted to" before he pecked me again and left me sitting on my own.

* * *

_OMG I start 6__th__ Form tomorrow! Argh! Im terrified!! This took ages to write again and I will spell check it properly when I have the time. But I just wanted to post it before I get loaded with a tone of hard A Level work :S_

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_.mmm_


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